Posted by Lisa Hochgraf
Greetings from CUES headquarters in Madison, Wis. It's great to be out of the basement (where my home office is located).
When I arrived in town late last week, I did some grocery shopping at the Copps grocery store near the office. I was proud that I had my "shoppers card" with me (no Copps in Rochester), and was surprised when the checker told me the card I had was no longer in use.
Instead, he explained, I could turn it in and get a rewards card where my purchases at Copps would help reduce the cost of my next gasoline purchase.
This week at CUES, my inbox seems to have a lot in it about such card rewards and affinity/loyalty programs. Intuitively I thought that such programs would be no-brainers right now as people try to get the most for their buck during this economic downturn.
And for retailers like Copps, this may be true, according to research by COLLOQUY, which finds that 75 percent of 2,152 surveyed said the down economy had a neutral or positive effect on loyalty programs. In contrast, the impact of the recession on financial services industry rewards programs was relatively flat, with 52.7 percent reporting "no difference" in the impact of the recession on program participation.
What is your perspective? Is now the time to take a fresh look at member loyalty through special promotions, debit/credit rewards, Net Promoter and the like? Or are there better ways to build member relationships this year?
